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Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

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Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#141

Post by joch »

I have been using Evernote for over 10 years now. The core note taking experience has never been close to good, but two things have made me stick by it through the years (powered through the nagging for business subscription)

1. Web clipper, which I use as a bookmark replacement, as well as for keeping copies of articles. Great for searching and knowing that I will always have a copy if a site suddenly disappears.

2. PDF ocr / search. I store a lot of receipts, contracts, invoices, manuals and other docs in Evernote, most of which are in PDF. I find the search-in-pdf feature indispensable.

I would love to move to something simpler like Bear (http://www.bear-writer.com), which has a superior writing experience. However, the two points above always make me come back to Evernote.

Edit: Also forgot to include the ability to take unstructured notes and sketches using the Apple Pencil on an iPad, while a bit cumbersome in Evernote, at least works.

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#142

Post by the6threplicant »

joch wrote: post #141

I have been using Evernote for over 10 years now. The core note taking experience has never been close to good, but two things have made me stick by it through the years (powered through the nagging for business subscription) 1. Web clipper, which I use as a bookmark replacement, as well as for keeping copies of articles. Great for searching and knowing that I will always have a copy if a site suddenly disappears. 2.…

My biggest gripe with the clipper when used on pdf's is the lack of any metadata searching in the pdf for a title suggestion.

I hate that I have to type in the title of the pdf as the title is usually "PDF - www.example.com".

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#143

Post by the6threplicant »

irrational wrote: post #103
saidajigumi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the set of features I need covered include: - Web clipping. Evernotes browser plugins are pretty darn good here. - Notes with attachments (images, PDFs, etc.). Some of these are mixed-media notes, where text, images, and/or file attachments are mixed to create a comprehensive document about some topic. Others are "pure" attachments, e.g. "store this PDF where I can retrieve it by search". - Note taking. Thi…

So, you feel search in Evernote is good? Personally I've found it severely lacking. I can't tell you how many times I've searched for something that I know is there (and that I do find after manually looking for it), but search comes up empty.

I think you have found most people's problems, not just with Evernote, but with all other clipping services: it's write often, read once (if at all).

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#145

Post by yitchelle »

craftyguy wrote: post #6
gargarplex wrote: post #3

i hope i don't lose Skitch. that's a decade or more worth of screenshots and convenient annotations...

Let this be a lesson against relying on proprietary walled gardens.

This easily happened even for open sourced or unwalled gardens. The effort for recovery could be too large or too technically challenging.

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#146

Post by pandapower2 »

drb91 wrote: post #135
incadenza wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I’m oblivious, but I’ve never heard bureaucratic applied to software. I’ve got to say it fits perfectly in this case.

JIRA also fits the bill.

"enterprisey" is a word I've heard used to describe jira a few times. Its meant as an insult.

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#148

Post by Kadin »

the6threplicant wrote: post #142
joch wrote: post #141

I have been using Evernote for over 10 years now. The core note taking experience has never been close to good, but two things have made me stick by it through the years (powered through the nagging for business subscription) 1. Web clipper, which I use as a bookmark replacement, as well as for keeping copies of articles. Great for searching and knowing that I will always have a copy if a site suddenly disappears. 2.…

My biggest gripe with the clipper when used on pdf's is the lack of any metadata searching in the pdf for a title suggestion. I hate that I have to type in the title of the pdf as the title is usually "PDF - www.example.com".

Yeah, it seems like it would be pretty easy to grab a meaningful title. Hell even the filename would be better in most cases.

OTOH, it's the best web clipper -- even with the stupid PDF name thing -- of any of the notetaking apps. So I can see why they don't put a lot of developer time into it... they're already beating the competition.

If OneNote had a decent web clipper that was on par with Evernote's, I'd probably switch: EN has done some shifty stuff, killing features and then selling them back to users as premium-tier stuff when they get pressed for money, and I can imagine that's going to happen again soon.

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#149

Post by puranjay »

copperx wrote: post #117
wlesieutre wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneNote is a direct competitor and honestly a better one

The OneNote web clipper is a disgrace compared to Evernote's. How do you get around this problem?

Evernote's Skitch was absolutely fantastic and I still haven't found a better replacement

Re: Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise

#150

Post by jillesvangurp »

I never really got into Evernote. It's me, I'm horribly unproductive with so called productivity apps and end up abandoning most of them. But I get that the product was hugely popular back in the day and had a loyal group of users.

My impression when I last tried it a few years ago was that it was a product that lacked focus in a bad way. Basically they were bolting on everything and the kitchen sink. The UX wasn't particularly good either. It was trying to be too many things at once; none of them particularly well.

To make this work, they need some fresh ideas and focus. More of the same is not going to cut it: they have to do something different. So getting rid of the CTO, CFO, and CPO sounds about right since clearly things weren't working out with them in terms of technical vision, monetization, or product focus. The question is of course whether there's a better plan now or whether this is just stepping stone towards inevitable acquihire of whatever remains.

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